Before we dive into the second way to assume power in your business, let’s revisit Part 1. 

Who informs your marketing strategy? 

YOU, with your carefully curated strategy informed by data and deep knowledge of your brand and audience? Or any of the 3 Cs below? 

• Competitors: Their advertising and digital presence and seemingly never-ending budgets consume the landscape.
• Colleagues: Their tried-and-true proven tactics or lessons learned.
• Customers: Their calls, requests, and ideas. 

Considering any of the above is not bad, in fact, it can be very wise! However, listening quickly becomes devastating if it lends to their running our business or marketing department. 

It’s time we move from defense to offense, sitting in the driver’s seat rather than allowing any of the 3 Cs to control. 

It is one thing to learn from and entirely another to be controlled by. 

In Part 1, we explored how knowing what we want is critical to regaining power.

1) Knowing what you want protects the bottom line.

2) Knowing what you want protects you from the 3 Cs. 

3) Knowing what you want protects you from running on auto-pilot.

You can read Part 1 here; in the meantime, let’s dive in! 

How to Regain Control of Your Business: Knowing Who You Are

Vertical alignment is a favorite concept of mine, coined over the last two years throughout my personal journey of knowing self. 

Consider the diagram below.

Vertical alignment is the state of internal being centered with who you are at your core. 

Horizontal alignment is the state of external doing engaged with the world around you.

In a state of vertical alignment, your business operates from its core center, predicated on its mission, values, and brand. It is authentic and confident and cuts through the noise because it is entirely unique from every competitor in the market. 

From this vertical alignment, your business is positioned for horizontal alignment to fulfill the integrity of its intended services, instituted processes, and promised results. 

A strong brand is not only differentiated in the market by its vertical alignment but delivers consistently and reliably in terms of its products, offerings, and services and also in terms of the customer experience by its horizontal alignment. 

Let’s examine what knowing who you are looks like in application, as well as some habits to implement with your team to strengthen vertical alignment. 

1) Knowing who You are Protects You from Horizontal Voices. 

The strength of “Who We Are” predicates the ability to maintain vertical alignment when something threatens your stability. When a colleague proposes a tactic that is not aligned with your values. When the customer comes calling with ideas that will knock you off course as bandwidth is limited or the budget is tight. 

I was on a call with a gal from my Mastermind when I mentioned a retreat I am excited to launch in the coming months. 

I shared that I was considering its positioning, given its curriculum is rooted in emotional intelligence (EQ) to inform personal brand development. The retreat serves C-Suite, but as EQ is not a common conversation among this audience, I was considering the best positioning. 

She advised, “Sell them solely on the business aspects, and then sneak attack with the EQ when they’re at the retreat!” 

At first blush, it sounds reasonable. After all, there’s a reason why the phrase, “Sell the people what they want, give them what they need,” is popular.

Horizontal advice and counsel can produce a wealth of knowledge. However, we must always approach the horizontal landscape – the external – powered by vertical alignment – centered internally with the core of who we are. 

Upon considering my values of who I am and the vision of what I want for this event, I realized the lack of transparency is not in alignment with my values nor setting the right expectations for the experience.

Sure, maybe I would get more sales; however, my bottom line — what I want — is not just sales. I want transformation on an emotional level. I want C-Suite execs to leave powered from a place of emotional intelligence to decrease decisions made out of alignment with who they are or executing tactics rooted in guilt, not vision. 

Ultimately, one of my core values is authenticity, and I must make business decisions accordingly. 

2) Knowing who You are Protects You from Reactivity.

Operating from vertical alignment maintains focus on the bottom line and the strategy to achieve it. From this position, you are protected from reacting to the horizontal pressures of the 3 Cs: Competitors, Colleagues, and Customers. 

This does not mean you do not adjust tactics or learn. 

However, your approach to adjustments is proactive direction, not reactive deviations. To do this, consider the following questions:

First: How does their (any one of the 3 Cs) tactic measure against my proven track record of success?

If your colleague promotes adding newsletters to your strategy, lean in and ask, “Why?” 

• What are their outcomes? 
• What metrics are they tracking for success? 
• What is their bottom line against yours? 
• How do newsletters fit into their strategy and stage(s) of the customer journey? 

Always consider your historical track record of success first and foremost. 

Have you tried newsletters in the past? Is their audience different from yours? Why are newsletters good for them when they did not prove profitable for you? 

Operate with your head up and your eyes open. 

Maintain focus on your bottom line and ask questions. Revisit your data, and don’t just take their word for it. 

2. Am I allocating time in my schedule?

I had coffee with the former CEO of Jiffy Lube, who built the empire that it is today. 

He could not emphasize more how critical it is to allocate time for thinking. Just being — not doing — and thinking about your business or department. 

Especially for senior leaders or business owners, but even still for junior staff. 

The time and space to be fosters creative thinking, new ideas, and energy. Some of my best campaigns are conjured on a walk or in the shower. 

Kasim Aslam, founder of the world’s #1 Google Ads agency and a dear friend of mine, is a machine when it comes to hacks and habits. He encouraged me to take an audit of my calendar over the last 30 days to assess how I spend time. 

“Create three buckets,” he said. “Organize them by the following:

• Tasks that Generate Revenue
• Tasks that Cost Me Money
• Tasks that Didn’t Earn Anything”

He and I chatted after I completed this exercise, and I added one to the list: Tasks that are Life-Giving. 

Friends — if we are running empty, exhausted, or emotionally depleted, our creative and strategic wherewithal will be significantly diminished. We are holistic creatures and, therefore, must nurture our mind, body, soul, and spirit to maintain optimum capacity for impact. 

I shared this hack with a friend of mine. Not only did she identify meetings that were costing her money and thus needed to be eliminated, but she also identified that particular meetings could actually turn revenue-generating! She spent a good amount of time each month facilitating introductions; now, she is adding Strategic Partnerships to her suite of services. 

ACTION: Analyze your calendar’s last 30-60 days against the list above. 

Include what is life-giving! 

How are you spending your time? What is the data showing you? Are you on the path to achieving what you want and living in alignment with who you want to be?

Share with your team or business partner for the purpose of accountability, and implement practical changes accordingly. 

Finally, remember: If you will not protect your time, no one else will. 

3) Knowing who You are Protects You from Lack. 

“What are you proud of?” someone asked me last year. 

“Nothing!” I reply too quickly. “I know I’m not living up to my potential or operating in the full capacity I could be.” 

They looked at me in shock. “You need to read The Gap And The Gain.”

I silently rolled my eyes.

I already knew the premise of the book, or I thought I did. I mused: My vision is so big, and I have so much to accomplish. The thought of solely focusing on “my wins” sounded like an excuse to abdicate personal responsibility. 

But I acquiesced. 

The premise of this book is to measure one’s self from where they started and the success from that place to where they are today — the gains — rather than from where they hope to get and the seemingly never-ending distance — the gap.

Ultimately, Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan encourage changing perspectives to assign success, considering the starting point rather than the destination.

The book opens with the following story:

Dan Jensen was an Olympic speed skater, notably the fastest in the world. But in each game spanning a decade, Jansen could not catch a break. “Flukes” — even tragedy with the death of his sister in the early morning of the 1988 Olympics — continued to disrupt the prediction of him being favored as the winner. 

The 1994 Olympics were the last of his career. He had one more shot.

Preceding his last Olympics in 1994, Jansen adjusted his mindset. He focused on every single person who invested in him, leading to this moment. He considered just how very lucky he was to even participate in the first place. He thought about his love for the sport itself, all of which led to an overwhelming realization of just how much he had gained throughout his life.

He raced the 1994 Olympic games differently, as his mindset powering every stride was one of confidence and gratitude — predicated on the gains rather than the gap in his life. 

This race secured him his first and only gold medal and broke a world record, simultaneously proving one of the most emotional wins in Olympic history. 

Friends, knowing who we are on the personal and professional level, can protect us from those voices of shame or guilt that creep in. 

PERSONAL ACTION: Create two columns. On one side, create a list of where you were when you started your business or your position at your company. Include skills and networks and even feelings about where you were in life. On the other side, outline where you are today. 

Look at how far you’ve come. 

COMPANY ACTION: Implement a quarterly meeting to review the past three months. Where did you start? Where are you now? 

Celebrate the gain!

Only from this place of gain mindset, can you create goals for the next quarter predicated on where you are today.

Ultimately, my hope for you is that you deliver exceptional and memorable experiences laced with empathy toward the customer (horizontally aligned) yet powered by the authenticity of the brand (vertically aligned). 

Aligning vertically maintains our focus on the bottom line and powers horizontal fulfillment. 

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Granted, there will be strategic times and seasons for adjustment; however, these changes are to be made on the heels of consulting who we are as a brand — not in reaction to the horizontal landscape of what is the latest and greatest in the industry. 

In Conclusion…

Taking back control of your business and marketing strategies requires a conscious effort to resist external pressures and realign with what you want and who you are.

Final thoughts as we wrap up: 

First, identify the root issue(s).

Consider which of the 3 Cs holds the most power: be it competition, colleagues, or customers.

Second, align vertically.

Vertical alignment facilitates individuality in the market and ensures you — and I — stand out and shine while serving our customers well. 

Third, keep the bottom line in view.

Implement a routine that keeps you and your team focused on what matters most, and then create the cascading strategy necessary to accomplish it. 

Fourth, maintain your mindsets.

Who You Are includes values for the internal culture. Guide your team in acknowledging the progress made along the way and embracing the gains to operate from a position of strength and confidence.

Fifth, maintain humility.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of humility and being open to what others are doing. However, horizontal alignment must come after vertical alignment. Otherwise, we will be at the mercy of the whims and fads of everyone around us. Humility allows us to be open to external inputs and vertically aligned at the same time.

Buckle up, friends! It’s time to take back the wheel and drive our businesses forward. 

The power lies with you and me.

The post 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

As I considered the topic that would best serve entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketers alike — all of whom I am — I mused over what I needed most throughout the last year. 

I needed to take back control of my business. 

And I am charging you to do the same. 

While I have provided two strategic ways to do so, the first outlined below and the second outlined in this blog post, it is critical that we first identify the root issue. 

Why are you and I not operating in the driver’s seat of our marketing and/or businesses? 

Three fundamental core challenges come in the form of 3 Cs: Competition, Colleagues, and Customers.

Who Are You Listening To?

1. Competition

We know the feeling all too well.

We feel a pit in our stomach or a slight racing of the heart when our competitors’ ads or organic content seem to be taking over social media and the internet: Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, newsletters, LinkedIn, programmatic…

And don’t forget traditional advertising.

Especially if you are in the home services or specialty services spaces where direct mail is 100% where you need to be, but don’t forget the QR code and UTMs and unique landing pages and geotargeted ads and email nurturing sequence for a holistic approach. 

Our competition’s budget appears never-ending, and their marketing team must be fantastic. 

Is theirs the strategy we should adopt, deviating from our carefully charted course agreed upon at the outset of the year?

2. Colleagues

Or perhaps it’s that of the peers in our Masterminds or networking groups or online communities. 

After all, within these groups resides a wealth of knowledge and expertise, tried-and-true insights, and wins. I am guilty as charged — my talk at T&C 2024 was chock-full of recommendations guiding marketers on their path to generating over 800% ROAS…
Should our marketing strategy or business’s bottom line deviate then?

3. Customers

Oh! But the power of our customers…when their phone call just after 5:00 PM because they saw their competitor’s ad and want to change course. 

Or when our customers’ higher-ups ask why you didn’t generate enough leads last month and how the bottom line is threatened if we don’t do something fast.

And how they joke about your job being on the line if numbers don’t change.

Do any of these resonate? 

If you are a human with a soul that cares about your business, team, and customers, I anticipate your hand is raised alongside mine. 

Friends, it is time we unbuckle the seatbelt of the 3 Cs and graciously escort them out. 

It’s time for you to regain control.

How to Regain Control of Your Business: Knowing What You Want

I cannot tell you how many times my question, “What do you want?” is met with blank stares. 

Such a simple question with such significant ramifications. 

To assume control, we must know what we want for the following three reasons.

1) Knowing what you want keeps you focused on the bottom line.

So many of us fail to regularly take stock of where we are actually going. 

Our heads are down, focused on tasks before us, rather than heads up, looking to the finish line yet equally aware of how our strategies today are or are not moving us closer to that target. 

With our heads down, the focus is on the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the necessary activations to achieve the bottom-line goal rather than the focus being on the goal itself. 

The trick is maintaining clarity of the goal and bottom line to then inform the strategic direction.

EXAMPLE: The Knowing Agency serves as fractional CMO for a waterproofing company. A major — colossal, even — KPI is lead generation. 

This KPI is obviously important because you need leads to get customers.

However, in 2023, our lead count was down significantly. 

With the 3 Cs close at hand, I questioned myself: Am I leading the team in the wrong direction!? 

We must be willing to ask tough questions and pursue the truth, even if it may prove that we are heading in the wrong direction — especially then! 

For we must first know the truth to then be changed by it. 

But I had to zoom out in order to know. 

With the bottom line as the primary focus, I then considered the KPI. 

When we zoomed out and measured that KPI in light of the bottom line, revenue, rather than as a standalone metric, we actually saw a significant increase in overall revenue and profits despite a lower lead count.

This means that while we were driving fewer leads, they were much more qualified, hence driving higher revenue.

My question for you is: Do you know what you want? 

And do you know your bottom line goal and the KPIs necessary to get there?

2) Knowing what you want protects you from the 3 Cs. 

The bottom-line goals of your company or department serve as guardrails to keep you on the straight and narrow when one of the 3 Cs comes calling. 

Protection from Competitors: Their bottom line could very well be entirely different from yours. Perhaps you seek to expand into a new region and must allocate funds by cutting budgets on top-of-funnel brand awareness tactics. Yet your competitor is dominating TV. Don’t deviate; your bottom line is at stake. 

Protection from Colleagues: Perhaps your bottom line is similar, but your target audiences are different. They are finding wild success with newsletters reaching an older demo while your audience is highly engaged with podcasts. Yes, perhaps explore newsletters, but not at the expense of your engaged audience on your podcast. 

Protection from Customers: Hopefully, you both have the same bottom line! However, when my client called with concerns about the KPI of lead numbers, which is indeed important, my ability to maintain focus on the bottom line guided their right thinking about what matters most: Revenue. 

Protection from the 3 Cs does not mean turning a blind eye or ignoring what is working for them. But it does keep your bottom line as the chief focus.

3) Knowing what you want protects you from running on auto-pilot.

Knowing what you want maintains momentum and breathes energy into tasks that otherwise would be monotonous.

Lead yourself or your team in revisiting the vision for the company regularly.

Nine-to-five employees increasingly seek to align with impact-driven organizations, and keeping the transformation the company aims to procure top-of-mind will drive motivation.

The transformation is always emotional, even surrounding a product or service.

EXAMPLE: Returning to the waterproofing company our team supported. Waterproofing a basement transforms the customers’ emotional states from one of anxiety or worry into one of peace or assurance. 

What once was: We are a waterproofing company servicing homeowners in Destin, Florida, for 54 years. Trust our team to waterproof your basement! 

Turns into: Our company cares for your family. Our company preserves homeowners’ greatest investment. Our company, ultimately, protects your home, which is where life happens. 

Suddenly, a waterproofing company has empathy.

Just like that, we are serving families and homes, not just servicing a basement.

But before you can truly know what you want, you first have to know who you are.

Head on over to Part 2!

The post 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Leadership, Vision, Purpose, and the Impact they have on both ourselves and others.

Which people, or even more specifically, which characteristics come to mind when you think of the word Leadership? We all have different perspectives of what makes a great leader, and if we were to list names, there would be many types of people on those lists. Some lists would likely have similarities, and some may not.

However, I believe that even though there would be different names on each list, the people those names represent would all have some commonalities within the characteristics they exhibit. There have been thousands of books written on leadership.

According to an Amazon search, over 57,000 titles with the word leadership in them. That’s a lot of research, opinions, conjecture, and maybe even a few facts to digest. Since the topic has been covered in great detail elsewhere, I won’t attempt to summarize my version or perspective of leadership. I will mention a few characteristics that I believe transcend across most, if not all, great leaders.

For me, I think of characteristics such as clear vision and purpose, and the ability to communicate those with others. The passion they have that is driven by this purpose is able to permeate their peers or the team they lead, and motivation to achieve the desired goals becomes almost contagious.

“Leadership is influence.” – John Maxwell.

Speaking of books on leadership…my favorite author on the subject matter is John C. Maxwell. He has written over 50 books on leadership and is widely considered a leading expert, and is often hired as a keynote speaker to expound on the topic at conferences or corporate gatherings.

I have personally read several of his books on leadership, and have heard him speak on multiple occasions, so I’m sure that my insights are shaped significantly through his particular lens.

Since I hope to add more value to you during the time you spend reading this article, my plan isn’t to simply regurgitate information, but to give you a way to look at leadership from possibly a slightly different angle. Potentially even allowing you to evaluate your own leadership ability, and the inevitable
impact that it could have on others within your sphere of influence.

I’ve studied leadership by studying leaders and asking questions. That’s not a novel idea or methodology I know, but I wanted to share a few of the questions I like to ask. Hopefully along the way, these will get the wheels turning in your mind a little, and spur you on to discovering more of the leader within you, as I believe they have for me.

• What can we do to become better leaders?
• What can we learn from great leaders?
• What drives people to develop their leadership ability?

I think that each of these questions can provide valuable insight for us as we understand and develop our own strengths and weaknesses with regards to leadership. It is of great value to understand what we are naturally gifted with, and also where we may have some shortfalls that need to be strengthened.

Learning from great leaders is a surefire way to reveal some glaring weaknesses I’ve found. Self evaluation is key to improvement however, so don’t let the gaps in your leadership ability be a deterrent for you. The last question above is important though.

Being a leader can be challenging, if not downright hard.

So make no mistake, understanding what drives others, and more specifically, what drives you to put in the work and develop those stubborn leadership weaknesses, is highly important.

We need to understand what drives us on a deeply intuitive level. So much so, that it is ingrained within us, and becomes part of who we are to our core. Otherwise, when things get a little tough, we’ll just throw in the towel, and let others do the hard things, while we settle for something safer, easier, and mediocre.

In the sub-headline I mentioned Vision and Purpose. I reference those because they are both interconnected with someone’s leadership. Over my 46 years of life, I’ve asked many great leaders the following questions.

What is the purpose behind their leadership and what vision guides their purpose?

Rather than dive into the purpose and vision of others, I ask you the same thing… What is the purpose behind, and the vision guiding Your leadership?

Identifying your purpose and vision can provide the necessary understanding and drive to overcome inevitable challenges your leadership growth will encounter. The process of becoming a leader can be lonely at times, not unlike the entrepreneurial journey as you build a business or multiple businesses.

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There will be people in your life that challenge your leadership, just as there are those who will question your business acumen. At times, we will likely question our own abilities, whether that be to lead anyone at all, or to become a successful business owner. These are precisely the times we all need to be able to reflect and tap into our own purpose and vision for why we do whatever it takes.

I believe there is a leader within all of us.

With that in mind, I want to propose a final question to you.

What Impact does a great leader have on people who are influenced by them?

I titled this article The Leading Impact, because I believe that true leadership has an amazing impact on others. In business, great leadership can provide jobs, income, wealth, stability, and financial freedom.

In life, great leadership can inspire change, it can be a catalyst to impact generations of humanity through the ripple effects of influence on lives around these great leaders. It can ignite a flame of passion to be a greater person today than yesterday, and in turn, that flame can spread to others who then take up the mantle of leadership, and continue the chain reaction of impacting lives.

I submit to you that it doesn’t matter whether you only learn to lead yourself well, and never esteem to lead a team of change agents. Your leadership matters, and you can have a huge impact on just a few, or possibly even on generations of people.

Regardless, all of this would be possible because you made a decision to clearly define your Purpose, cast Vision for your life, and become the Leader you were created to be.

Much love on your journey!

The post The Power of Influence: Transforming Lives Through Leadership appeared first on DigitalMarketer.